Final Presentation on Assryian and Babylonia and Persia 1

7/30/2019 Final Presentation on Assryian and Babylonia and Persia 1

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Art and Architecture History

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Assyria is the name for a part of ancient Mesopotamialocated on the upper Tigris

The principal cities of Assyria were Nineveh, Dun,

Khorsabad, Nimrudand Assur The Assyrians were great warriors and hunters, and

this was reflected in their art

They produced violent sculptures and relief carving in

stone that was used to ornament their houses

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During the Assyrian periods, temples lost theirimportance to palaces.

Assyrian kings built walled cities, in which palaces

took precedent over religious buildings. Palaces were raised on brick platforms, and their

principal entrance ways were flanked by guardianfigures of human headed bulls or lions of stone.

Their halls and corridors were lined with pictures andinscriptions carved in relief on stone slabs up to 9 feethigh.

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The interiors were richly decorated and luxurious.

The walls of cities were usually strengthened by many towers serving as defensive positions.

The city of Khorsabad demonstrate the might andauthority of the Assyrian kings.

It is also at this place that the remains of Assyrianarchitecture can be found.

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Khorsabad was designed as the royal capital of Assyria

The city was built on a flat land with an area of about asquare mile and was enclosed by a double wall with

seven city gates Only a part of the city including palaces, temples and

administrative headquarters was built.

The palace was located on the north west side of the

city.

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The palace is approached at ground level through a walled citadel.

Within the citadel is found the main palace, two minor

palaces and a temple dedicated to Nabu. The main palace was set on a platform located on the

northern side of the citadel.

All the buildings within the citadel were arranged

around courtyards

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The palace was arranged around two major courtyardsabout which were grouped smaller courtyards.

The palace consisted of large and smaller rooms with

the throne room being the largest The building was decorated with relief sculpture and

glazed brick

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After the fall of Nineveh in 612 BC and the end of the Assyrian civilization, focus of Mesopotamiancivilization shifted to old Babylon.

A new dynasty of kings, including Nebuchadnezzar,revived old Babylonian culture to create a Neo-Babylonian civilization.

Old Sumerian cities were rebuilt

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The capital old Babylon was enlarged and heavily fortified.

It was also adorned with magnificent new buildings.

The traditional style of Mesopotamian buildingreached its peak during the period.

Traditional building was enhanced by a new form of façade ornament consisting of figures designed in

colored glazed brick work

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From the palace originated a procession street thatcuts through the city raised above the ground to thetower of Babel.

The procession street enters the city through thefamous Ishtar gate.

The Ishtar gate is built across the double walls of thecity fortification.

The gate had a pair of projecting towers on each wall

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All the facades of gates

and adjoining streets were

faced with blue glazedbricks and ornamented

with figures of heraldic

animals-lions, bulls, and

dragons

•These were modeled in

relief and glazed in other

colors

•None of the buildings of

old Babylon has survived

to the present age.

Ishtar Gate

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Nebuchadnezzar’s palace covered a land area of 900feet by 600 feet.

It had administrative offices, barracks, the king’sharem, private apartment all arranged around fivecourtyards.

The palace is also praised for its legendary hanginggarden.

This is recorded as one of the seven wonders of theancient world, but exact knowledge of the nature of this garden is not known

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Temples and towers were also prominent architecturalelements of Babylon.

The legendary tower of Babel located at the end of procession street is mentioned in the Christian bible.

There is also no information about the design and

construction of the tower.

Most of what is available on the tower is hypothetical

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The Hanging Gardens of Babylon are considered to beone of the original Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.They were built in the ancient city-state of Babylon, nearpresent-day Al Hillah, Babil, in Iraq. They are sometimes

called the Hanging Gardens of Semiramis (in referenceto the legendary Queen Semiramis).

The gardens were supposedly built by the Babylonian kingNebuchadnezzar II around 600 BC. He is reported to have

constructed the gardens to please his homesick wife, Amytis of Media, who longed for the trees and fragrantplants of her homeland Persia. The gardens were destroyedby several earthquakes after the second century BC.

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The gardens didn't actually hang: They draped over thesides of terraces on a brick structure. Some accounts of the gardens claim that they grew as high as 75 feet inthe air and that people could walk beneath them.

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The Persian empire started in about 560 BC when Cyrusthe great from the province of Fars swept over the region

with his powerful cavalry.

By the end of the century, Cyrus and his successors, Darius

1 and Xerxes had conquered the entire civilized world fromIndus to Danube River with the exception of Greece.

It was the wish of the Persians to construct great buildings.

They were to achieve greatness with their architecturalsolutions.

The architectural solutions were a synthesis of ideasgathered from almost all parts of their empire and from theGreeks an Egyptians

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Their materials of construction was also from differentlocations.

Material included mud-brick from Babylon, woodenroof beams from Lebanon, precious material fromIndia and Egypt, Stone columns quarried and carvedby Ionic Greeks.

Despite sourcing materials and ideas from different

areas, their architecture was original and distinctive instyle

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Persian architecture achieved its greatestmonumentality at Persepolis.

It was constructed as a new capital for the PersianEmpire.

The city was started 510 BC and finished in 460 BC.

It is set along the face of a mountain, and levelled tocreate a large platform 1800 feet by 900 feet.

It was surrounded by a fortification wall. The site was more than half covered by buildings

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The palace consisted of three parts:

• An approach of monumental staircases, gate ways and avenues

•Two great state halls towards the center of the platform

•The palace of Xerxes, the harem, and other living quarters at the south end of the

site

PALACELAYOUT

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Structurally, the buildings relied on a hypostylescheme throughout (hypostyle hall has a flat ceiling which is supported by columns ).

They used it to achieve spaces of varying scale.

Some of the spaces were very big and generally squarein plan.

The spaces were enclosed by mud brick walls.

The most impressive aspect of the palace was the royalaudience hall

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The Royal audience hall was a square 250 feet in lengthand contained 36 slender columns widely space & 67feet high.

The columns had a lower diameter of only 5 feet.

The centers of the columns were spaced 20 feet or 4diameters apart.

The column was the greatest invention of the Persians.

The columns were fluted and stand on inverted bell

shaped bases. Their capital combine Greek motifs with Egyptian

palm leaf topped by an impost of paired beast

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Another famous aspect of the palace at persepolis wasthe throne room.

This was also known as hall of a 100 columns.

The columns in the room were 37 feet high, with adiameter of only 3 feet.

They were spaced 20 feet apart or seven diametersfrom axis to axis.

The slim nature of the column created room andspacious feeling in the room when compared to theaudience hall

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The monumentalentrance toPersepolis is alsoone of the uniqueaspects of thePalace.

The monumentalgateway ensure adramatic entry tothe Palace.

It was heavily

adorned with relief sculptureornamenting itsstairway

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In some places, thesculpture shows delegatesfrom the different parts of the Persian bringing giftsand rare animals to the

king during celebrations. In some places, royal

guards and nobles of theimperial court are shown.

Elsewhere, the king is seenin conflict with animals orseated beneath aceremonial umbrella

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The ruins of Persepolis

have survived to the

present day

•Existing ruins however

give a faulty expression of

the city’s original

appearance

•Some columns

supporting the halls of

the great halls have

survived

•The mud brick fabric of

the palace and its

enclosing walls have

perished completely

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Only thesculptures which adorndoorways or windows andopenings andthe relief ornamentingits entrance way remain

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Final Presentation on Assryian and Babylonia and Persia 1